With the world increasingly relying on petroleum and petroleum products which must be shipped over long distances in ever larger tank ships, concern over the environmental impact of transporting these potentiality hazardous liquids has justifiably increased. Within recent years severe ecological damage has either occurred or narrowly been averted on a number of occasions where large vessels carrying crude oil, for example, have either been involved in collisions or groundings which resulted in rupturing the hulls of the vessels with subsequent leakage of the petroleum content into the surrounding environment.
Obviously, the world will continue for the foreseeable future to require large quantities of petroleum and petroleum products and it is to be anticipated that increasingly these products and raw petroleum will have to be shipped across the world's ocean. Equally clearly, economy dictates that much of this transport will take place in large tank type vessels carrying sufficient quantities of crude oil or petroleum products to cause extensive damage to the ecology if the integrity of the vessel is breached.
At present, large tankers such as those used to transport crude oil contain a number of segmented compartments for holding the crude oil cargo. These compartments in fact normally comprise the greater part of the vessel's hull and are not provided with protection against collision or penetration by objects. The result is that if the hull of these vessels is breached, a significant spillage of the contents is to be anticipated.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a system for protecting the cargo compartments of vessels which transport liquid material with a flexible safety liner which will contain the liquid product and prevent its spillage should the hull of the vessel be ruptured.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a flexible bladder for the cargo compartments of vessels carrying liquids which will facilitate the cleaning of the cargo area once the liquid cargo has been discharged.